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Digital readiness for
customer experience
in the airline industry

Overview

Accenture conducted interviews with 25 senior executives at leading airlines throughout the world to understand business issues and the disruptive impacts of digital technology on the airline industry, particularly in relation to the customer experience.

Study Objectives

Identify top business and customer experience challenges in the airline industry, and the extent to which digital technology is an issue.

Findings

Strengths for Airlines to Leverage

To improve customer relationships and reduce the power of intermediaries, airlines seek to leverage three unique strengths: (1) owning the most important piece of the travel value chain (the flight), (2) having access to richer customer insights than intermediaries do, and (3) offering more touchpoints and meaningful services than intermediaries are able to.

Digital Sophistication for Business Advantage

Increasing their digital sophistication is another key strategy airlines are using to neutralize intermediaries and improve customer relationships. All airlines in the study are invested heavily in mobile self-service technology, and in creating and leveraging 360-degree views of the customer. Most have strong social media initiatives.

Clear Vision, Struggle Implementing

Most airlines have a clear vision for using digital technology to optimize customer experience, but lack the implementation know-how and talent to "make it happen."

Cultural and Technological Barriers

Top barriers to implementation are cultural resistance, technological limitations, and excessive "siloing" of both operations and technology.

Openness to Digital Innovation

Most airlines believe the airline industry lags other industries when it comes to digital innovation. While they tend to want to look outside the industry for the best ideas, they are enthusiastic about several emerging digital concepts presented in the study, such as real-time personalization, using digital to provide seamless service and being willing to innovate business and operating models.

Key Digital Disruption: Distribution

Customer data concerns point to what executives identify as the key disruption of digital technology on the airline industry, which is its impact on distribution and customer relationships.

Strengthening of Intermediaries

Airline executives believe digital has strengthened intermediaries such as OTAs (online travel agencies) and Google Flights. These digital intermediaries are perceived as distancing carriers from their customers and contributing to commoditization of the airline "product."

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